Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to electronic assemblies and more particularly to electronic assemblies that convert between a state in which an input device is exposed and a different state in which the input device is hidden.
A wide variety of portable electronic apparatuses are offered today including computers (e.g., laptop or tablet computers), electronic games, and the like. Laptop computers include a display chassis that can be opened and closed relative to a main chassis. The display chassis has a viewing side and an opposite cover side. The main chassis has an input side where an integrated keyboard is accessible to the user and an opposite bottom side that typically rests upon a surface during operation. When the laptop is in an inoperative mode (e.g., shut down or sleeping), the viewing side of the display chassis is positioned against the input side of the main chassis. In a conventional operating mode, the viewing side of the display chassis is typically positioned between 90° and 150° with respect to the input side so that the user has access to the keyboard. For convertible laptops that can also function in a table operating mode, the display chassis is rotated further away and folded against the body chassis. The user primarily interacts with a touch-sensitive screen of the display chassis.
A keyboard includes several keys that are arranged in a predetermined manner. For mechanical keyboards, the keys (or keycaps) are to be depressed into the main chassis. The keycaps are designed to move at least a certain distance so that the user knows the key has been activated. As such, the keyboard has a minimum thickness that accounts for the stroke distance of the key caps as well as for the circuitry and other mechanical components used by the laptop computer.
Some laptop computers are designed to move the key caps into the main chassis before the display chassis returns to a closed position in the inoperative mode. Moving the key caps into the main chassis may protect the screen and make the laptop computer easier to close. In one mechanism, a hidden wire frame extends across a covered surface of each of the key caps. The wire frame may be lowered as the display chassis is closed, thereby pressing the key caps into the body chassis.
This mechanism, however, may require a relatively large force. For instance, each key may require about 60 grams-force (gf) to push down. Some keyboards include 80 keycaps or more, which corresponds to 5 kilogram-force (kgf) to push the key caps down. It would be desirable to provide a mechanism for moving the key caps that requires less force than known mechanisms.